God's Forsaken
by The Masque of the Red Death
Summary: Based off of Twilight universe. Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and her characters. Zeke is a troubled kid looking to start over when he meets the mysterious Lilith Hawthorne and her family, and must deal with her demons along with his own. Review Please!
1. New Prison

**Author Note: Hey guys, this is my first fanfic, so be gentle. The first chapter is sort of long, but I just wanted to use this to develop my character, Zeke. I won't give everything away right away, its a kind of slow to a boil type of story. I can guarantee if you push through the first chapter, it will get better. Read, Review, and (hopefully) Enjoy!**

My first breath of fresh air was invigorating. A soft wind kissed my skin, making me feel truly alive once again.

Two long years I had been locked up. Two long years since I had been able to say that I was truly alive.

I looked around me to realize I was drawing stares from my some of my former peers within the juvenile hall. I could understand that, considering I was standing outside of what was a prison for kids with issues, with my arms spread out, wearing clothes that were too small, inhaling deeply the dusty air outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I quickly put down my arms feeling a little self conscious.

I looked down the desert road, waiting for my bus out of here. The heat from the pavement in the late summer sun was causing shimmering mirage along the surface of the road. I could have fried an egg on it.

Finally in the distance, I saw it coming. A dingy old bus was on the horizon that was coming to pick up myself and several others who also had the same release date.

The bus itself would be making several stops. Bus station, police station, but in my case it was making a special stop. I was going to be getting off at the airport to be flown off to my new prison of sorts. A place named Odell, Oregon.

My chariot came to a screeching stop in front of me. The doors flopped open haphazardly and I stepped on to find myself being stared at by a fat, depressing looking human being. Considering he was driving a prison bus, and was in the condition he was in, he made a life mistake somewhere. Then again, who am I to judge? He was the one driving me from a juvenile facility.

I took myself to the back of the bus and sat in a seat with the small bag of possessions I still owned. A stern looking bald man, wearing a uniform stood up on the front of the bus with a clipboard. Sitting next to him was an even sterner looking man sitting down facing us. This one was holding a rather menacing looking shotgun. I couldn't help but chuckle. Who would do anything violent on the way away from this place?

"Jose Amos," his voice commanded.

A Hispanic boy towards the front put his hand in the air. The guard nodded and made a mark on the clipboard he was.

"Derek Child," he continued.

Another person answered. I took a look out of the window.

I sigh made its way past my lips. I really didn't want to leave New Mexico. Then again, I didn't really have a choice. I was only 17. I would have to go to my next of kin, my grandfather living by himself in the middle of nowhere, Oregon.

This was going to be a hard transition. I was about to go from a big city, desert environment, to a town that was sitting somewhere in the middle of the woods. Only a few thousand people lived in the entire county. This was going to suck.

"Ezekiel King!" the guard shouted. Apparently it wasn't the first time.

"Here," I answered him.

"When I address you, you answer, got that boy?" the guard asserted, in a rather pissy mood.

"Yes sah!" I answered throwing a mock salute in his direction.

His eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. There wasn't anything he could do to me at this point. I technically hadn't done anything wrong.

The guard continued through his list of names, and soon, the list was completed. The rusty gears of the grated against each other, and with a great jerk, the bus began its trip to all of our destinations. Lucky me, mine was going to be last.

I unzipped my bag and reached into it to once again make sure all of the few possessions I had were present and began to rummage through. There wasn't very much to rummage through though. Most of what was in the bag was clothes, all of which I had outgrown. I had a huge growth spurt over the past two years; I had grown almost a foot it seemed like, making me a solid 6 foot 3 inches. I guess I would be stuck having to get some new clothes whenever I got to my grandfather's house in Oregon. That really wouldn't be a big deal I suppose.

My hands continued their search through the bag and I finally found something besides useless clothing. It was a collection of small books, full of nothing but sketches. A smile spread across my face. It had been a long time since I had seen any of these. All of these sketch books were done by my mother.

The leather bound books felt good on my skin, very familiar. I cracked the book open and took a look at the first picture.

It was a beautiful pencil sketch of a black haired female angel. The face of this being was flawless, typical of my mother's steady hand, not a single imperfection marred her face. However the face of this angel was downcast, eyes closed, a small tear falling down her cheek. The wings of the angel were folded down in front of her, as if to protect her delicate body. Her hands were folded over where her heart would be, as if trying to keep her heart from bursting out of her chest. In the corner of the page was scribbled the name of the portrait, in my mother's distinct script, "Lilith".

I had to close the book. I took a deep breath to try and keep the feelings from rising up. It had been over two years ago now. I should be over it by now. I guess things like this die hard.

I tossed the books back into the bag and took another look as the scenery of the southwest passed by. I put my head against the window and made an attempt to fall asleep. I had to pull my head off after a few minutes. The vibration of the rickety bus wasn't going to allow me this simple comfort. No choice then but to sit up straight and stare off into space just like everybody else on the bus.

After sitting on the bus for an hour and a half, it finally arrived at my destination, the bus stop at the Albuquerque International Airport. I stood up and headed for the door, under the scrutinizing gaze of the two guards. I blew a kiss at them and watched them scowl at me, and couldn't help but smile.

It was easy an easy process at the airport for me. My ticket for Portland was already bought, courtesy of my grandfather; all I had to do was claim it.

"I'm here to pick up my ticket," I told the rep at the flight counter.

"Can I see some identification?" She responded airily. Her mind was obviously elsewhere. I presented an identification card that was a few years old. I officially didn't have my driver's license yet, even though I had taken the class.

Her eyes flashed down and she typed my name into the computer and within a minute I was walking away with my tickets in hand.

All I had was my bag, which was passable as a carry on piece of luggage. Security was a breeze. I managed to make through the entire process in less than an hour amazingly.

I took a look at my ticket. The flight was boarding at five. It was currently one. It would have been better if the whole process had taken longer. I now had a total of four hours to burn until I could even get on the flight.

There was nothing else to do but to explore the massive airport. Just like any other airport, it was full of bars, over priced food, gift shops saying how great the state of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque was. There really wasn't that much too do except to go and try to read in the various magazine stands that were scattered through out the terminal. I constantly ended up getting chased away from each stand respectively after each of the owners realized I wasn't actually going to buy anything. At the only real retail bookstore in the airport I found a sketch book. I took some of the little money I had saved and bought the sketch book and a couple of pencils to sketch with.

I took my new purchase and sat down, outside the gate I would eventually be boarding. In my adventure of the airport, I had managed to burn a little over two hours, so I still had plenty of time left to burn. I took one of the pencils out of the packaging they came in, and luckily for me, pre-sharpened. I then cracked open the sketch book and started to observe everything around me, looking for something inspiring.

People constantly kept bustling by each looking for their own destination. Business men in suits hustled to their gates, Bluetooth's glued to their ears, carrying only small carry on luggage. Family's passed me, parents trying to wrangle in small children, who were complaining about being bored. None of these really pricked my interest.

Then I saw something I knew I had to draw as soon as I saw it. It was a small fair haired girl sitting with her mother. She was wearing a simple little white skirt, clutching a stuffed bunny rabbit for dear life. It was easy to tell she was scared of getting on the plane. I immediately set off fixing the image in my head, in case she had to move anytime soon.

The pencil felt natural in my hand, even though it had been so long since I had managed to sketch anything. Not really too much sketch where I had been. I set off putting the cut little girl and her bunny rabbit into my sketch book. Lucky for me, she didn't want to move too much. In a matter of about a half an hour, I had a good sketch of this kid sitting on the very first page of my book. I put everything back into my bag. I felt a grumbling in my stomach. I was going to have to buy over priced airport food.

I set off once again to try and find myself the cheapest food I could buy. I found a cheap taco stand. Cheap being 3 dollars for grade E meat in a hard shell. I bought 2 and immediately regretted it. It was going to be the only thing I was going eat for the rest of the day, it was expensive and it gave me a serious case of indigestion, which was a miracle in itself. The lunch lady's back at the joint didn't do us any favors to say the very least. These guys must exchange recipes.

I sat writhing in misery for the rest my time, half over the fact that those were the worst tacos I had ever had, and also that they had been my first food as a free man.

"Flight 234, destined for Portland, Oregon is now boarding," a disembodied voice announced.

I managed to make it through the gate and got on to the flight without any problems. The flight itself was long, but otherwise, uneventful. Mostly because I had passed out as soon as the plane had taken off.

Standing for me at the terminal was a face that I hadn't seen in a very long time; an old man, who stood a few inches shorter than me. He was wearing a flannel shirt, a pair old work pants and a kind smile on his weary face. There he was, Kenneth James.

"Ezekiel, my boy, it's been so long," the old man told me jovially.

"Come on gramps, you know you can't call me that. It's Zeke," I told him rolling my eyes.

I put out my hand to shake his. Instead he gripped me into a very tight hug. The old man was stronger than he looked.

"Do you want anything to eat?" my grandfathered asked.

"No thanks. Tacos at the airport down there nearly killed me. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to eat again for a week," was my reply.

The old man laughed.

We got to the parking lot and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was the most ancient pick up truck I had ever seen. I'm pretty sure this was the prototype for the original truck.

"Why are you still driving this thing?" I asked him shocked.

He laughed once again.

"This thing has served me well for years. I've had this truck since Katherine was a little girl," he told me. I could hear his voice crack as soon as he said my mother's name. Glad I'm not the only who wasn't totally over everything.

Surprisingly enough, the old truck ran like it was right off of the lot. That still didn't do anything for the fact that the ride was going to be about 2 hours long. Half way along the trip, a drizzle began to fall.

"Rain?" my voice asked no one in particular.

"Don't see much of that in New Mexico," my grandfather commented in an amused voice.

"You can say that," was my response.

The rain didn't let up for the rest of the trip. It was dark by the time our car finally pulled up to the old house my grandfather had been living in since he came to Oregon after Vietnam. It definitely wasn't much to look at.

The house was white, but the paint was peeling pretty much all over the outside of the house. A dark green set of shutters outlined ever window. The outside of the house was fairly unkempt, the grass need to be cut with abundant weeds. Overall, the house just looked like crap.

I took a step out of the truck and stretched my cramped muscles. Today had been a very long day. My grandfather started off towards the garage and gestured for me to follow.

"You do remember what I do for a living, right?" he questioned me.

"You're a mechanic," I answered.

"Good memory kid," he said as reached down and threw up the door to the garage. I could only stand in awe of what I saw.

It was a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle in a flat black paint. Sitting before me was a car that was the embodiment of American muscle. As far as cars go, this thing was the most ferocious thing I had ever seen. And I had seen a lot of cars in the big city down there.

"What do you think?" the old man asked eagerly.

What did I think? It was the most amazing vehicle I had ever seen in my life is what I thought.

"Its pretty cool," I eloquently stated in the typical apathetic speech of the average American teen.

"Good thing, because it's going to be your ride. As soon as you get your license that is," he said through a grin.

I couldn't believe what my ears had just relayed to my brain. The worlds reached my brain. They just didn't seem to make any sense.

"Wait. You're telling me, that you are giving that car," I said pointing at the Chevelle.

"Yup," he replied still grinning, "Let's just call it a gift, from grandfather to grandson."

I wasn't sure how to respond. The only person who had ever given me anything in my life was my mother and she wasn't around any more. This man wouldn't even speak to my mother for years after she ran away with my father. Why was he doing all of this for me now?

"I know I haven't been the grandfather I should have been all these years. I realize my mistake. But I was given a chance to do what was right again when you were being let out. I know I can't buy you off, but please, take this as a gift of peace between the two of us," he said, as if he was reading my thoughts.

Might as well forgive the guy I suppose. Not like I had anybody else I could turn to.

"Well, between this and giving me a place to live and food to eat," I began, "I think I guess I can forgive your previous absence."

He let out a sigh of relief. He then led me into the dingy old house.

The inside was pretty representative of the outside. It was rough, but livable. Hardwood floors were present throughout the entire house, as well as old white washed walls. Very few things separated the monotony of the whitewash except for a few old photographs, which I assume were of him, my grandmother, and a few of a little girl which was most likely my own mother. I did see one interesting thing though, a painting that hung on the wall, an angel once again. I didn't even have to ask. That was another piece by my mother. She definitely did have a thing for angels.

The old man went over to the refrigerator and got a couple of cokes out and set them on the table in the kitchen. I popped the top with one hand and took a large sip of the bubbly sweet liquid.

"So have you thought at all about what you were going to do now that you're out?" the old man asked.

I had considered what I was going to do after I had gotten out. It mostly consisted of leaving everything in the past. That was the nice thing about being tried as a minor, it would be possible. As soon as I turned 18 my record would be expunged and as far as anybody would know, I had never done any time. However, having dreams in such a place is hard to imagine.

"I was thinking about just working with trying to graduate at first. Maybe going to college or something, if my grades will let me and I can some how afford it. Overall, though, I have no real direction or idea," I truthfully told him.

"I figured as much," he commented wryly, "You're welcome to stay here as long as you wish of course. All I ask is that you help around the house and try not to get into any trouble. That's the last thing you really need right now."

"You're telling me," I muttered to myself.

"If you want to make some extra money, you're more than welcome to work at the shop as well," he continued.

The old man really was bending over backwards for me.

"That sounds good," I replied. Well that saved me looking for a job and also granted me some security.

"I think that we are also going to need to get you some new clothes," he said eyeing my too small clothing, "We'll get that done early tomorrow."

"When does school start?" I asked curiously.

"I believe it will be beginning next week maybe," he contemplated. He sighed and got up to go check the calendar hanging on the wall.

"Yup, next Tuesday," he affirmed.

"Do I need to do anything?"

"Showing up would be a good place to start if I had to guess," the old man said wryly once again.

"You think you're a real funny guy don't you?" I responded sarcastically.

"Think? I know I am," he laughed.

I chuckled at his overconfidence. It was hard to imagine that such a nice guy refused to talk to his own daughter for years. Then again, the years do change how people are.

After we had finished hammering out the final details of what my new life here would entail, my grandfather took me up a rickety staircase, to the second floor where both of our rooms would be. He was going to be staying in the master bedroom. I was going to have the bedroom that had once belonged to my own mother when she lived here.

It was a small room, but I didn't need anything fancy. I had just gotten out of living in a box with a bunch of other delinquents. This was going to be paradise. A full size bed sat pushed up against the far wall, an armoire sat against the opposite wall. A small desk sat in the corner, and to my surprise, and easel had also taken up residence in the room. The room immediately felt like home.

My grandfather walked of to let me get settled in and I began to unpack the few belongings I had. That took very little time and I ended up attempting to look through my mother's sketch books again. A rap came from chamber door.

"Yes?" I answered.

My grandfather walked in, holding something behind his back. If it was another gift I wouldn't know what I would do. He had already given me so much stuff already.

"Hey kid, I almost forgot to give this to you," instead of explaining any further he threw a small black box to me. I picked it out of the air and examined it. It was compact and covered in a velvety fabric, the kind that jewelry was put in when it had just been bought.. I stopped breathing when I opened it.

It was my mother's engagement ring. It by no means was anything special, as my father had married my mother young, and could afford little more than this. Just a simple white gold, with a small diamond set in, and an inscription on the inside of the band, reading_Love Eternal_.

"Why are you giving me this," I asked shocked.

"Its more yours then it could ever be mine," he answered, "besides, your father gave her that, and I could never stand that man, as you very well know."

I rolled the ring around between my fingers. It was so familiar it almost hurt.

"Thank you," was all I could manage.

Eventually, the old man wondered away leaving me alone. I didn't mind, I had a lot of stuff to try and go over in my own head.

I lay back on the bed, examining the ring at arms length, listening to the steady drizzle against the roof of the house. I feel asleep that night listening to the rain and thinking of the mother I had lost.


	2. First Day

An alarm blared, telling me it was time to get up. I hopped out of bed quickly and went over the alarm and shut it off. From the light that was coming through the window, I could tell it was going to be another overcast day. That was something I still wasn't used too. That and the copious amounts of rain.

I sighed and stretched my sleep worn muscles. I dropped myself down to the ground and started doing push-ups. I did about 50 before I got up and stretched once again and jumped into the shower.

The warm water felt good and really did help to finally get me up. I took a look at my reflection staring back at me in the mirror. Fairly short dark brown hair, that would get a little bit of gel later to give it some texture and make it stand a bit, and pair of mahogany color eyes. I don't like to brag, but I was pretty cut, I struck a few poses, then felt a little self conscious and got out of the bathroom to change into my new clothes. I would be wearing a simple pair of boot cut jeans and black t-shirt. I hung my mother's ring around my neck on a strong thin chain. A light hooded jacket would be all I would need to keep the rain off me today since it wasn't supposed to be heavy at any point during the day.

I ran down the stairs into the kitchen to find my grandfather there, sipping a cup of coffee, reading the paper. Some eggs and bacon and a few slices of toast sat in an open space of the table with a glass of orange juice.

"Thanks Gramps," I muttered as I began to scarf down my breakfast, with him just laughing at my ability to eat.

"Have a good day kid. Don't get any trouble, please," he said.

"No worries," I assured. I wasn't looking for any more trouble.

I took myself out to the garage and threw my back pack into the passenger's seat of the Chevelle before putting myself in the driver's side. This was exciting. I put the key in the ignition and turned the key. The engine roared to life making the car momentarily shudder. It made getting my license worth it all in the end. I shifted the manual transmission into gear and found myself rolling out of the garage and onto the street in front of the house. The drive to Hood River Valley High School was only about 20 minutes. I was immediately surprised by the school.

This place was small. Much smaller than any high school I have had the misfortune of seeing. It was a two story brick building, in a T shape, with a bud sticking off of it, most presumably the gym. I sighed and stepped out into the parking lot.

I just by looking at the parking lot, I could tell the area wasn't very rich. Even back in New Mexico, I saw cars like Mustangs, Lexus, and even an Audi or two in the school parking lot. Most of the cars here definitely looked like they might be rivaling their drivers in age. At least my car was still cooler than any of theirs.

Right as I was thinking that, I had to quickly rethink that idea. Two cars were passing by me. The first being what looked like a brand new crimson colored, Mitsubishi Evo, with what appeared to be all the works, by the way the engine seemed to roar, even though it was only going 10 mph past me. Four people were riding in the car, none of them too clear through the heavily tinted windows. The second car was the one that really got me. A BMW M6, gun metal grey. This thing seriously had to have been just off the lot. It was amazing. Then I caught sight of the driver, as the window was rolled down on this one.

A stunning girl was driving this car. She was a raven haired beauty with the palest skin I had ever seen. Every feature of her face was immaculately carved, as if by the very hand of God, from the finest marble to be dug out of the Earth. Her eyes flashed towards mine for only a half a second. They were an unnatural golden color. Then just as quickly, she had already passed by. I had goose bumps going all up and down my arms, and it wasn't that cold.

I tried to shake it off and went towards the school building, digging my schedule out of my front pocket, so I could find out where I would be heading to. Government, first period, great. As if it wasn't hard enough to stay awake in the morning.

I took off towards my first class, the halls were very easy navigate, most due to the fact there really wasn't too much to the school. I looked down to check the schedule again; I was at the right room.

I was the only person there, not even the teacher was there yet. I guess everybody was still out socializing before class. It was a typical classroom, full of those chair/desk deals. Each had a name on them, which made it obvious that there was some sort of arranged seating pattern. I checked my card, and found it to be at the front, the closest to

the teacher's desk. I didn't think anything of it and took a seat.

I was sitting there for ten whole minutes before a trickle of students started making their way into the room For some reason I had the feeling I was being stared at all the while. I tried to ignore it. Did they already know my past? It was more than likely. Gossip tended spread around small communities like wildfire or the plague.

I did my best to pay attention when the teacher came into the class and began to do all the syllabus stuff that generally came with a class at the beginning of the year. She also handed out the locker assignments and went over the rules that came with owning one of the schools lockers. The typical common sense knowledge not to do stuff like keep weapons, explosives or live animals in it. I was grateful that she got through that quickly and jumped immediately into teaching. I really didn't feel like having her turning it over for socialization, mostly due to the face I had nobody to socialize with.

Class went quick enough and actually managed to hold my attention which was amazing in itself. Luckily I made it out of class with no homework that needed to be done, just some reading in the first section of the textbook.

My next class was going to be English. This was a class that I should do well in. I have always been a well read person. The hall was abuzz with all the activity of changing classes and I decided to check where my locker was, since I hadn't done it before class and I had 10 minutes to blow to get to my next class. I didn't have far to go for English anyways, it was further down the hall from the room I had just been in.

I found my number and tried the combination that I had gotten on a slip of paper in my first class. I tried the combination and pulled up on the tab that should open the door. Of course it didn't work. I tried it again without any luck. I let out a weary sigh and started to walk away.

"I can help you if you want," a timid voice offered from behind me. I spun around to see a mousy looking girl with long straight brown hair, wearing glasses.

"Thank you," I responded and went back over to the locker.

She took a look at my combination, and put it spun the combination in just as I had, only at the end she twisted the dial over the final number a few times then pulled up on the handle tab thing and it popped open without a problem. I cocked my eyebrow and she chuckled nervously.

"Thank you, again," I repeated, "how did you manage that?"

"All of these lockers are kind of old. You kind of learn how to, finesse it open I guess," she responded in her timid voice.

"Well kudos to your ability to finesse," I said.

"I had an unfair advantage," she admitted, "that was actually my locker last year.

What's your next class?"

"Senior English," I responded.

"Same here," she said, sounding excited.

"Excellent, what's your name?" I asked.

"Annie May," she responded.

"Well thanks Annie. I'm Zeke."

We took off towards the end of the hall towards where our next class was. The

room had the same set up as the last one, cards on the desks and everything. This class went similarly to the last, nothing too special, just syllabus work. We were left to rest of the class to talk and do as we wished. I just sat and talked to Annie, trying to find out what people did here in the middle of the temperate rainforest. She thought that was funny.

"We try to find fun where we can," she told me; "there is a bowling alley and a lot of good places for hiking if you like it. We also have a couple of golf courses and good fishing on the river."

"Definitely is a major change then what the city used to offer," I commented.

"That had to be a lot different," Annie said back wonderingly.

I laughed. The rest of the class passed similarly.

Annie and I split ways at the end of the class. We decided to meet up again during lunch since we both would have it after our next class. I was glad I just wouldn't be sitting alone. I had to go to chemistry. This was probably the only class I was going to have to worry about all year.

The teacher, Mr. Sanders, didn't put cards on the desks like the two previous. Instead he had us all stand until everyone had gotten in, and assigned us then. I once again found myself towards the front by the desk. I was starting to wonder how far my deviant record had gone.

There was something different about this teacher though. It was something about the way he looked at me. It was a look of pure despise. It wasn't overt, but I could see it in his eye, like I was something that he had scraped off of the bottom of his shoe. This was going to be a very long class.

After what felt like an eternity the bell finally rang and I was allowed to escape down to the cafeteria. I found Annie standing at the entrance, waiting, presumably for me. We then managed to make it through cafeteria towards the lines. While walking by everyone in the cafeteria I had to come to a dead stop. I couldn't help it. I saw six of the most inhumanly beautiful looking people I had ever seen.

All six were sitting next to each other, three guys and three girls, plates of food sitting in front of them, conversing amongst themselves. I was immediately struck by the way they seemed to all look similar, yet distinct. Each had the same pale skin, which was common among the locals here, but this was even more exaggerated. I also didn't get that great look but I'm pretty sure that they each had a similar eye color, a strange gold that didn't seem to quite fit in my mental profile of "Human".

That is where the similarities end though. The 3 guys were very different from each other. One was a tall with short dark hair, fairly muscular, with a very reserved aura about him. Another had shaggy blonde hair, and was slightly bigger in stature, and appeared to be a little more animated than the first guy. The third one had an oriental look, as if he had some descent from eastern Asia, long dark hair split down the middle, coming to his jaw, and was the shortest of the three guys.

The girls were all stunning. One was a fiery red head, tall with the body of a dancer. The next was a shorter golden blonde with a slow curl going down the length. The final one was a familiar looking raven haired bombshell.

I realized they had all stopped talking and were staring at me, staring at them.

Feeling self conscious once again I turned and hurried after Annie towards the lines. I could hear an eruption of laughter follow my back, coming from the table. I stole a look and my eyes met the golden eyes of the raven haired girl, scrutinizing me, the only one not laughing.

I felt myself blush a bit and tried to look forward. I wasn't one to get flustered by people, especially not girls. Then again I have never seen a girl that was as pretty as that one. Annie was looking at me with an amused look on her face.

"I see you've been dazzled," she observed.

"You can say that," I responded thinking of the raven haired girl.

"Don't worry, it happens to everybody," she assured me.

"Do you ever get used to it?"

"Not really."

We sat in line till we got our food, which didn't take too long. Just by looking at the food, I could tell that I would most likely be packing lunch from now on. I followed Annie and to a table with a couple of other kids already sitting there. They all looked like nice kids, but the ones who were kind of on the fringe of the high school social ladder. I learned there names were Jake, Maria, Lindsay and David.

I sat down with them and they began to ask me questions about where I came from, what I liked; the whole third degree one usually gets when they meet new people. I answered their questions, editing some stuff about my past. I didn't want to just throw everything out on the table for a group of people I had only met a few minutes ago.

I already had a decent feel for their personalities. Annie of course was a little shy, but definitely a nice girl. Jake, a shorter, thin guy with bad skin, he was definitely a little bit geeky, too much for his own good. Maria, a Hispanic looking girl with curly hair, was very introverted, she didn't speak much, and she didn't seem very comfortable around me. Lindsay, a tough looking tall girl, was a little bit of a jock; volleyball and softball were her sports of choice. Finally there was David, black hair with too much gel and normal build, a huge car fanatic. He nearly did a back flip when I told him about my Chevelle.

After a while they gave up on their interrogation on me and were talking amongst themselves about nothing in particular. I found my eyes wandering the cafeteria trying to pick out the stereotypical cliques that one usually finds in high school. Sure enough, everyone was their and accounted for. The jocks were being loud and obnoxious, all wearing their varsity jackets, next to the cheerleaders who were laughing at them. A table of darker looking, gothic kids had taken up residence at one side of the cafeteria, and group of skater kids wasn't too far off. Besides that everybody else was spread out in a fairly homogeneous spread. The only table that really didn't fit any mold I could think of was the table of the pale, beautiful people I had seen before. I couldn't help staring at them; a moth coming to the flame. That one black haired girl definitely held my attention, though she probably didn't know I existed.

"If you stare too hard your eyes might fall out," Lindsay said rolling her eyes at me. That snapped me back to reality.

"What happened?" I asked, still a little dazed.

"You were staring like you knew you were about to go blind," David teased.

"Oh," I responded looking over again, "Who are they?"

Annie answered this time. "They all live together, with the Hawthornes."

"The Hawthornes?" I asked.

"Well Thomas Hawthorne is some kind of a psychiatrist and his wife, Mary is a pharmacist, so they are definitely well off. I think they just have a thing for taking care of troubled kids who got kicked out of their families," Annie informed me.

"Who are the kids then?"

"Well, the red haired girl is named Roxy. Her boyfriend is the blonde haired guy over there, Michael," she indicated the first two, "Michael's twin sister is the blonde girl there, Katia. The Asian guy is her boyfriend, Hiro. The tall guy with the dark hair is Lucien I've noticed they call him the "The Reverend" for some reason. Then the black haired girl's name is Lilith."

"Lilith," I repeated her name quietly to myself. Her head snapped in my direction and she met my eye again. She narrowed her eyes, giving me a dirty look. Taken aback I looked away. What was that about?

"It's kind of creepy though," Jake voice, "the way they all kind of look the same. I think they might be in some kind of cult or something. That's the rational explanation I can find."

"Of course that would be the only rational explanation you could find Jake," David commented rolling his eyes.

"I'm right, I know I am," he tried to defend himself.

Luckily before he had any more time to try and continue defending his theory the bell rang signaling the next class.

The statistics class was one of the most boring and useless classes I had ever had the misery of sitting through. It didn't end soon enough.

Spanish was my next to class. This class was going to be a breeze. I had already taken a lot of Spanish living in New Mexico, where it was practical to know it. I could probably hold my own against the teacher of the class if I had to guess. I took my seat in the class, once again close to the desk of the teacher. There was no doubt by now that my reputation had preceded me. I couldn't wait to show them that I really wasn't that bad of a kid.

I was surprised to see that two of the extraordinarily beautiful people came in. The redhead, Roxy and the dark haired stoic Lucien took seats that were close to my own. I had never seen anybody that looked as stunning as the two of them. That's weird, saying a guy is "stunning". Definitely not going to say that aloud.

Class began and was cut and dry. Nothing interesting happened besides the two angelic humanlike creatures walking in. I did my best to not stare at the two, especially the redhead. Her boyfriend looked like he was capable of tearing somebody's head off. Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but I really don't feel like finding out the hard way.

Finally the day was going to come to an excruciatingly long end. The only class I was really looking forward too was coming, Art. I made my way through the halls, finally finding the Art suite. I took a step into the room and took in the smells of the room, a mixture of paper, paint and clay.

Finally I found a class where there wasn't a seating arrangement. I took a seat towards the back of class at one of the large granite tables.

I couldn't wait to actually start doing things in this class. They hadn't bothered to do anything non academic in the detention facility I was at, so it had been a while since I got to do anything very artsy, with a lot of different art supplies. The best I could hope for was being allowed to sketch stuff by pencil, which was my specialty anyways. I love acrylic. Maybe we would do some of that.

The chair scraped, allowing somebody to sit beside me. It was Annie once again. I heard the chairs scrape again on the other side of the table. I was surprised to see both Michael and Lilith sitting there, Lilith exactly across from me.

She was staring at me with her scorching golden eyes. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Michael chuckled from across the table.

"You must be the new kid, Zeke; I believe is what you like to be called. My name is Michael," his velvet like voice introduced, proffering his hand across the table.

"Nice to meet you," I took his hand in response. It was as cold as death. I tried not to react.

"Lilith, be a doll and actually introduce yourself, would you?" Michael urged her.

She looked from him and me.

"Lilith," she announced in a musical, albeit bored sounding voice. She didn't bother to offer her hand. Ouch.

Things were awkwardly silent for a few minutes as we waited for class to begin. The teacher, Mrs. Horn, finally swept in, wearing a smock and everything. She couldn't have screamed "I'm an art teacher!" any louder if she had a bullhorn.

"Ok class, today I just want to get a feeling for each of your personal creative abilities. So all that we are going to do is just have everybody express themselves today however they wish in just a short sketch exercise. On my list of required materials you should have gotten a notebook style sketchbook, so we'll use that. Just do a basic sketch of anything you want," the teacher said, as if it was the greatest thing to have ever happened.

A groan erupted from the group. Apparently it wasn't that great of an idea. Not a very creative bunch.

This wasn't going to be no problem for me. I took out my sketchbook and tried to think of something good to draw. I scanned the room to see if anything could catch my interest. All that I saw around the room were students struggling to think of things or just doodling in their notebooks. There wasn't anything very interesting.

I quickly stole a look across the table at my two angelic tablemates. Michael was already busy at work on something. Lilith was looking off into space, contemplating something very hard. It was an amazing picture. Her head was tilted up and away from me, her head sitting on her fist, pencil clenched inside with other arm laying on the table. I quickly committed the image to memory and set at work. I knew for a fact that it was going to be perfect.

I began to do my sketch, making sure that Lilith couldn't see what I was doing. It was problematic enough that she seemed to have a complete distaste for me. I could only imagine how she would react to me sketching for a class project. I felt like I had just begun when the class was let out. Our sketches would be finished during the next class.

I made my out of the building, not wanting to linger. The parking lot was just beginning to get filled with students wanting to make there way home just like myself. My eye caught to slick looking cars sitting next to each other. The M6 and Evo from this morning were looking slick and shining. I couldn't help but admire good craftsmanship when I saw it.

"Not bad, right?" I heard an amused male voice call from behind me. I turned to see Hiro and Katia standing looking at me.

"Its pretty cool," I commented, "but it's no American muscle.

"Oh really? What exactly do you drive?" Hiro asked me, eyebrow raised.

"Take a look," I responded walking towards my car.

We stopped in front of my Chevelle.

"Not bad. How does it run?" Hiro asked, crouching down to examine my car from a different angle.

"It purrs like a cat when you scratch it in just the right spot," I bragged.

"It's ok. If you like retro stuff," Hiro countered trying to get a rise out of me.

Katia rolled her eyes. "Boys are stupid. It's always about one upping each other," Katia commented on our childish behavior.

"Come on babe, we're not that bad are we?" Hiro said.

She gave him a flat look that just screamed, "Yes, you are."

"I think that's her way of telling me its time to go. Maybe we can have a little race sometime to which is better, retro muscle or modern whips?" Hiro challenged.

"Hell yeah," I responded.

They tuned and headed back to their car, to find the rest of the Hawthornes waiting for them. Lilith was sitting on her car waiting for them to come back over. Her perfect lips began to move, saying something to Hiro. She didn't seem very happy about something. Hiro apparently blew her off, making her angrier. He got into his car, where

Katia took the passenger's seat, while Michael and Roxy hopped into the back seat. Lilith slid off the roof of her car stepped into the car. She managed to take just enough time to give me a dirty look. Lucien slid into the passenger seat of the M6. I watched as both cars pulled out of the parking lot onto the main road.

Author Note: Hey guys, just wanted to see how you liked the story. Post some reviews, so I know if you guys like this or not. I think I have the tendency of getting a little wordy, but I like to focus on character development, and that generally gets a little wordy. Took down the old story, got some killer writers block, plus I know I can do way more with this anyways.


	3. Auto Care

The next day came uneventfully enough. I had gone to work with my grandfather after school, where he was beginning to show me the trade. At the moment I was only doing grunt work around the shop, fetching things, ringing up prices and mostly watching and learning more about the anatomy of cars. I'm a quick learner, so in a matter of no time I would be doing oil changes and tire changes, according to the old man. 

Time for class came again. I repeated the same morning ritual I had the day before and made my way to the campus a little bit later than I had yesterday. I didn't feel like sitting by myself in 1st period by myself so I decided to bypass the problem all together. 

I drove on to the campus and found my way through all my classes much like I had the day before. I noticed that some of the guys I had lunch with yesterday were in a couple of my classes that I hadn't realized before. I shared Government in the morning with David and Maria and Chemistry I had with Lindsay, so I would now hopefully have a lab partner. 

Overall classes seemed to go much quicker than they had the day before. I still got a strange feeling from the Chemistry teacher, Mr. Sanders, though. I felt as if he was always watching me, as if I was about to jump up with a switchblade and go to town on the class with it. I did my best to ignore it.

I sat at lunch once again and found myself staring across the room at the table of beautiful people. I think I'm the only one who was watching them, but I can't see how nobody else was. They were so stunning, even though they didn't try. They sat together quietly conversing, not touching a scrap of the food that they had bought in front of them. That was rather strange, but then again, a lot of things about them were very strange. When the lunch period was over I noticed that all of there food had gone uneaten and was thrown away. I can't be the only person to have noticed. 

My other classes were dull, as expected. When the time for Art came around I was ready to finish out the day, and Art was a relaxing way to do it too. 

Everyone found themselves at the same tables once again. Mrs. Horn called the class to order and asked everyone to finish their works that they had started. I pulled my sketchbook out and started to put the finishing touches on my work of Lilith. I had gotten bored last night, so I had done a little extra work on it. At this point, only a little bit of shading had to be done along with some fine details. I still tried to hide my sketch from the sight of my other desk mates. 

I finished my sketch earlier than the rest of the class, so I decided to close my book. No use sketching anymore, not to mention my hand was tired, so I decided to just chill until we were supposed to turn our masterpieces over to Mrs. Horn. Each student delivered their books to the front of the class 10 minutes before the bell that was to release rang, that we she could over them. 

She left us to ourselves until the end of class, and then we were free to leave. Annie began to talk to me so I tried to let myself get absorbed in whatever she was saying that way I wouldn't be staring over at Lilith, again. 

"Oh my," Mrs. Horn's voice declared from the front of the room behind a pile of books. "I must show this to you guys. We have quite a bit of talent in this class, Mr. King."

She was holding my sketchbook. 

"Oh God no," I whispered to air. I saw Michael's face light with curiosity. Annie gave me a curious look as well, wondering what had me so flustered. Lilith looked uninterested as was typical with her. 

Mrs. Horn opened my book and began to walk around the class room. Everyone took a look as the picture as she circulated it around the room. The looks on people's faces ranged from a mild interest to surprise. The one thing that always happened though was after looking, everyone looked in my direction. 

The paper finally made it to my table. 

"Wow Zeke, I didn't know you were this good," Annie remarked in awe. 

"It just a sketch," I tried to play it off. I didn't like a lot of attention. 

"You have quite the talent there," Michael said, examining my sketch. He met my eye and gave me a wink. "Hey Lilith, what do you think?"

That bastard. 

Lilith hadn't been looking she had been staring off into the distance. She took a look down at the picture. She examined it for a second before an odd look came over her face. It started off as surprise, and then her eyes narrowed, and met mine. It was kind of frightening look. 

I could feel my blood rush to my face. If it wasn't bad enough the model of my sketch saw the sketch of her I made without her permission, it looked as if she was going to rip my throat out. This really couldn't get much worse. 

"Why did you do that?" Lilith asked, in an annoyed voice. 

"Well, uh," I began to explain, quite eloquently I might add, "you see…"

"Just stay away from me," she commanded and looked away resolutely once again. Michael seemed a little intrigued by his sister's extremely adverse reaction. Annie didn't say anything thankfully; she was probably embarrassed for me just from what I knew of her personality.

Class ended and I wasn't planning on sticking around. I was out the door and to my car in what felt like what was only a few seconds. I sat in my car for a moment tried to think about what had just happened. It sucked. I felt my head bang against the steering wheel, feeling like crap. 

A knock came at the window. I looked up to see David standing there. I didn't need to ask, he already knew what had happened, I could tell by the amused grin on his face. I popped the lock and let him in.

"This thing really is pretty sweet," he commented stepping into the Chevelle. I really hope he hasn't heard about the Art class yet. 

"So dude, what exactly happened in Art with Lilith Hawthorne?" 

I will never doubt the power of gossip in a small town ever again. 

"I have no idea," I replied, "I mean I should have asked permission first but still the response was a little unwarranted."

"Too true. She is definitely hot, but her nose is sticking a little too far in the air for my taste."

"Yeah right. You're meaning to tell me if she offered to make out with you, your ethics would keep you from doing so."

His answer came quickly. "Hell no. I would definitely go for it. I would never get the opportunity to get with a girl like that ever again."

"I thought so," I responded rolling my eyes at his typical response. But who was I to judge. I would do the exact same thing with next to no hesitation if any. 

"Do you think your grandfather could use any extra help at the shop?" David asked, changing the subject thankfully. 

"I don't know. He just added me, but he still may have an opening for another part timer," I answered honestly, "I could definitely ask and find out for you."

"Thanks man, much appreciated. I got to roll, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Later," I told him as left. 

From there I spent another uneventful day in the auto shop. I did manage to talk to my grandfather about David being able to get some part time work here and he said it would be fine; he just wanted to meet the kid before. So sure enough, David ended up working at Ken's Auto Care.

The next few weeks passed uneventfully. I went to school and work, no real issues there. I hadn't really spoken to any of the Hawthornes again since the incident in Art class. Then again, in those first few days it's not as if I had made friends with any of them anyways. Lilith was really bad, I felt as if she was always trying to avoid my eyes. It was made even stranger by the fact that occasionally I would catch her looking at me. It isn't healthy to think about a girl you hardly talk to as much as I am about her. Maybe I'm a stalker and just not 

Summer was already ending and the temperature began to drop just a little. The late September weather began to set in and felt amazing. That did nothing for the near constant rain though; it only made it a bit colder than it was before. 

It was Friday afternoon in the auto shop and it was slow. Not so much as an emissions test came in oddly enough. I had already finished my duties around the shop and had finished my homework, so I was entertaining myself by reading a copy of Alternative Press magazine. I had managed to get my grandfather to get one more magazine subscription, which was saying something. He was pretty tight about the budget of the auto shop. 

It was hard to get back into the new music scene since I had gotten out of juvenile hall. It seems as if a hundred new bands I would like suddenly sprung up out of the ground. I was going to have to get myself a computer and an Ipod just to keep up with all the overflow of music. From what David would play for me though while we working, I liked most of what he played for me. 

The bell to the door rung and I looked up. Standing there was none other than Lilith, standing there in the doorway wearing a red jacket, hooded jacket, looking like a fallen angel thought the light streaming in behind the door. 

"Great," I heard her murmur from across the room. I assume I wasn't supposed to hear that. 

"How may I help you," I asked as civilly as I could mange. 

"I'm here for an oil change," she told me sounding bored. 

"Alright, for the M6 I'm assuming?" 

"Yes," she answered curtly. 

She handed me the key and walked outside and drove her car into the workshop and on to the lift where I would be changing her oil. I only need to jack the car up a little bit to be able to get under it, but still have it low enough to check under the hood. I began to do so when she interrupted. 

"You're the one who is going to be doing the work? No thanks. I'd rather somebody else did it," her voice said to my back. I had to suppress an angry shudder. 

"Fine," I said, not looking at her. I couldn't. I had never been so annoyed by somebody before. Why did I have to be treated like the scum she scraped off of her shoe?

I went to the back room where the old man was seated in a dirty old fabric recliner that had seen much better days watching a television.

"We have a job," I told him.

"What is it?" he said looking over his shoulder at me.

"Oil change."

"Why the hell do you need my help?" he asked confused, "You can do one of those with your eyes closed."

"Yes well our _customer_, would rather that I would not be the one to do it," I said, making sure the word "customer" was dripping with acid. 

"Well, I'm the only other person here today, so just tell them I am indisposed and that you will have to do it."

"Fine," I sighed. 

I found Lilith standing in the same spot with an annoyed look painted on her marvelous face. Her slightly plump lips stood in a pout that showed her irritation. 

"Sorry, I'm the only employee available at the moment," I informed her.

She made a sound that made her disgust apparent. "Fine, just don't mess up my car."

"Of course Miss. Hawthorne," my voice packed with as much sarcasm as I could fit into it. Her eyes narrowed at my remark but didn't say anything else. 

I started to go about my work, with Lilith watching me in my every move. I was sitting under the car, getting ready to pull the cap to let the oil drain. I soft melody was weaving itself softly from somewhere nearby. It was only a soft humming, but it easily put to shame any bird I had ever heard. Even though it was low, it was full of so many tones and colors; it was like watching painting being made in front of me. The melody just seemed to relax every nerve in my body. 

The oil cap popped. Hot lubricating oil rushed out down my arm scalding my skin. I cussed and tried to move out of the way of the burning hot stream. The humming stopped.

"Are you ok?" Lilith asked, her voice uncharacteristically concerned. 

I crawled out from under the car and immediately reached for a rag that was close by to scrape of the oil before it could do any more damage.

"You're not very good at this are you?" her voice, back to the typical sarcasm. 

"Do you really need to be constantly condescending," I barked at her, partially from the pain, partially from the overflow of my irritation with her. 

Lilith immediately looked hurt and I found myself regretting what I had said. She offered her delicate pale hand. I took it and she pulled me up with surprising ease. 

"Where is your first aid kit?" she asked. 

"In the back," I told her. She my uninjured arm and urgently lead me to the room that I had indicated. 

The room was the one where I had seen my grandfather only a few minutes ago, but he was currently nowhere to be found. Lilith grabbed the first aid box and took it over by the industrial sink where I was sitting. 

"Take your shirt off," she ordered.

"What?" I asked shocked.

"Your shirt, take it off. Its covered in oil, so your chest might be burned as well," she explained. 

Lilith was right of course, the arm had gotten the worst of it, but some make it down my shoulder onto my chest. I peeled the shirt off of my back, my mothers ring still sitting on my chest on its chain.

Lilith took the cleanest looking rag nearby and began to clean off the burned area gingerly. She held my arm out straight making delicately swabbed the affected areas. It felt strange to have her doing this for me, as I was more than capable of doing it on my own, but I couldn't complain about this. 

"Your hands are freezing," I told her. 

"Poor circulation," she answered mechanically. 

Lilith finished wiping of the remaining oil, took the container of burn gel out of the first aid box. Put some in her hand a rubbed them on the sore tissue along my arm. She moved from my hand up along my arm towards my shoulder, until she reached my chest. Her delicate hands rubbed some of the gel in there, until it worked its way deep into the burn. She ran a finger along the chain around my neck. 

"Who does this belong to?" she asked curiously.

"My dad gave it to my mother when they eloped," I told her. 

"Why isn't she wearing it?" she asked.

"Dead people usually don't need jewelry," I replied I little more coldly than I meant to.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

"Doesn't matter. It wasn't your fault. I'm over it," I replied. 

Just then the door swung open with my grandfather standing at the door, with a bottle of coke in his hand. He cocked his eyebrow at the scene lying before him. It did look pretty bad all things considered. Half finished job in the garage, two teenagers in the back, me with my shirt off, very close to each other, with her hand on the my chest. 

"I can explain," I began, but he was already walking out. 

"Send it in a letter to Penthouse. I don't want to know," he told me not looking back. 

"Awkward," Lilith mumbled to herself.

"At least you don't have to eat dinner with the guy later," I retorted.

"True," she giggled.

She began to wrap the areas I had burned in gauze, until I had bandages crisscrossing up and down my left arm. I got up and tested it and it worked spectacularly. The way she had wrapped it had left me with the ability to still have full use of my arm. 

"You're really not as bad as I thought you were," I told her. 

"Don't you just know how to charm a lady," she commented wryly in return.

"Lady? Is there one here I was unaware of?" I said looking around.

Lilith sent an elbow to my ribs. It kind of hurt. Actually, it really hurt. What the heck is her body made of?

"Really though, what was up those first couple of days with you?" I asked her in all seriousness, rubbing my probably shattered ribs. 

"I just don't like most people in general," her voice sad with some past hurt, "Outside of my family, I don't really trust anybody."

"All of you are runaways and foster kids aren't you?" I asked carefully.

"In a sense," she said evasively, "Can you just finish working on my car? I have stuff I need to do tonight."

"Depends," I replied, "You going to actually talk to me at school?" 

Lilith finally cracked a smile, a small one, but a smile altogether. 

"We'll see how my car runs. If it's good maybe, if not, you're a dead man," she joked. At least I hoped she was joking. 

"Fair enough. By the way you should do that more often," I said.

"Do what?" she asked confused.

"Smile," I replied.

Lilith looked away a little embarrassed. Something that I'm sure she wasn't used to. 

"Just shut up and fix my car," was all she said.

**Author Note: Hey guys, sorry for the wait, tell you friends if you like it. I really need to get some more hits. Reviews would be awesome too. Thanks.**


	4. Concussions

**Sorry for not updating for a while (well, lets be honest, months). I actually kind of forgot I was working on this, but thanks to a message from someone who liked the story, its back in business. I hope its to everyone's liking (the few readers i seem to have). Review, more chapters to come.**

It was Sunday night and I wasn't able to sleep. My mind was still on Lilith. Still on her sweet voice, her beautifully carved lips, and her cold finger running on my chest. It was a recipe for insomnia.

The constant sound of the rain against the roof really wasn't helping the situation much either. Some people it puts to sleep, but I was kept awake by that and the occasional crack of lightning. I sat up in the bed, thunder rumbling distantly in the background. The digital clock on my desk was reading the number 2:26 am. Still extremely early.

I went down stairs and poured my self a glass of milk from the carton in the refrigerator. This usually helped me get back to sleep. Maybe it is a throw back to when people are babies. It just feels comfortable. I returned to the wooden the stairs and scaled them to head back to my room.

I opened the door right when a flash lightning struck close by. The lightning isn't what scared me. What scared me was that sitting outside my window was a black haired girl with glowing yellow eyes staring at me.

"Holy Shit!" the words escaped my mouth before I could stop them. I had jumped backwards. The stairs were right behind me. I tumbled backwards down the first few before I hit a small landing.

"What the hell is going on?" my grandfather yelled from the master bedroom. He found my lying shirtless, half conscious, with a milk mustache lying on the stairs in a stupor.

"You alright boy?" he asked, half worried, half amused.

"Maybe," was all I could manage at the moment.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I thought I saw something."

"What was it?"

"Not sure," I lied.

I knew damn well what I saw, but it didn't make sense. There is no way it could be her. How could it be her? Having a girl I hardly knew on the brain this much wasn't very normal. Or healthy.

I crawled back in my bed putting my head on my pillow. I immediately winced. My fingers searched the back of my head to find a fairly sizeable goose egg. Great. That was going to hurt in the morning. Hell, it hurt like crazy now. I shut my eyes trying to forget the pain. And the image of a supernatural looking girl sitting outside of my window at 2:30 in the morning.

The morning eventually came and I managed to get some sleep, but nowhere near as much as I would have liked. I tried to do my morning push ups, but my head hurt way too much. I skipped that step.

I tried to eat breakfast, a bowl of cereal and some orange juice, but I ended up pouring most of both down the drain. I just couldn't stomach it. My head was throbbing and each time I chewed it was like a hammer hitting my head. The only thing I could stomach was some ibuprofen.

I began the drive to Hood River High, my head buzzing. I tried to focus but my vision was blurring a bit. I shouldn't be driving. What the hell was wrong? There was no way that a little fall like I had last night should be affecting me this bad should it? It was too late to turn back though; I had already gone most of the distance now to the high school.

I was about to pull into the parking lot, when I was cut off by a truck full of jocks wearing varsity jackets. They pulled through only centimeters away from smashing the front of my car, laughing all the while. I slammed my hand on the horn at them. The driver responded by giving me the finger.

That was too much for me. I followed them into the parking lot and parked far enough I wouldn't have them see where I parked, but close enough to catch up with them. I strode across the parking lot in the groups direction.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded.

"You got in my way," the jock who was driving responded. I could tell this guy was trash. I'm pretty sure I saw him or his father get dragged from a trailer in an episode of Cops.

"I had the right of way genius," I said angrily, "you nearly smashed into me."

"You would have deserved it," was his response.

That didn't even make the slightest amount of sense. Was this guy serious?

"Lets roll guys," he said to his group of moronic meatheads and went off towards the building, leaving me confused.

I made my way to my first class and sat down in my desk and put my head down. I couldn't fall asleep, but keeping my head up really wasn't an option either. I was getting an odd sense of vertigo sitting under the fluorescent lights of the school.

I managed to make it through the first 2 classes without any condemnation for my behavior, which I was very thankful for. Chemistry was a different situation all together.

"Mr. King," Mr. Sanders barked, spitting my last name like it was something dirty, "will you be so kind as to stay up during my class."

"I'm up," I muttered with my head still down on the table.

"What was that?" he shouted, right next to my head.

"I said, I'm up," I snarled. Usually I would be so rude, but this headache was killing me.

"Where do you get off talking to me like that?" he hissed at me.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I replied.

Mr. Sander's face was now a bright red from the angry blood rushing to his face. It looked funny because it stopped at where is hairline would have been when he was younger, leaving the top of his balding head a pale white.

"You know what King, you are trash just like your father," he said.

Those words made my blood run cold. This guy knew my father?

"Don't speak about my father like that!" I was standing now, as these words escaped my lips. When did I stand up again? Had I always been standing?

"I knew that scum that spawned you," he said maliciously, "You look and act just like him, so aloof as if you are better than anything around you."

What the hell was he talking about, I was nothing like that.

"Just get out of my class," he said before I could retort.

I grabbed my things and stood outside of the class for the rest of the period. I was

probably going to be written up for this. The old man was going to be pissed.

"What are you doing out here?" a sweet voice asked me. I looked over to see Lilith standing nearby.

"Got kicked out," I told her, "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm an office aid this period. I just go and deliver messages around for the office."

"That's a sweet deal."

"I'll say. It lets me do all of my homework so I never have any at home."

The bell rang just then.

"Well its lunch, want to walk with me?" I asked her.

"Sure," she responded rather cheerily.

The two of us began headed for the cafeteria. My headache was still bothering

me, but Lilith seemed to be having some kind of an opiate like affect on me. It didn't seem as important now.

I still wasn't really hungry, but I was still going to give it a try. Maybe I would be able to finally stomach something now. Lilith and I reached the lunch line only to meet my friends from this morning.

"Hey, it's that idiot from this morning," said one of the varsity jacket toting morons with a mullet.

"Wow, a mullet, did one of your kissing cousins do that haircut for you or did you actually pay somebody for it?" I said in response. I was already pissed from earlier in the day. The constant throb in my head wasn't making me any nicer as well. Lilith looked at me with wide eyes.

The jock's face went immediately scarlet.

"What was that you little bitch?" he snarled at me as he pushed me backwards. I stumbled back a few steps but I held myself, just barely. My balance didn't seem to want to stay with me right now.

"Zeke, what are you doing?" Lilith asked nervously. It didn't really seem to register.

"I was pretty clear. Maybe all the inbreeding had a bad affect on your eardrums," I said coolly.

The jock pulled back his arm. He was rearing up for a punch, aimed directly at my face. By pure reaction I sent a quick punch strait for his face. My punch connected before he even had a chance to send his forward. He reeled back and was grabbed by some of his friends.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw another varsity jacket. I had no time to react before I felt a fist connect on the side of my face, at the corner of my lips. I felt the skin in my mouth break open and blood immediately began to pour.

My head was throbbing as I faced my new foe. It was the guy who had been driving the truck this morning.

My vision was blurring for some reason. It shouldn't have been doing that from a minor blow. I kept my eyes on him, but spit some of the accumulating blood out of my mouth onto the floor.

A cold vice like grip grabbed my shoulders and began to bring me down.

"Lilith!" a concerned voice called. It was Lucien, who had just entered the cafeteria.

The pressure on my shoulders let go immediately. I unwisely turned my head to look at Lilith. Her eyes were pitch black and absolutely terrifying. Tremors ran through her body as she stared me with undeniable hatred and disgust.

Before I could react a pair of hands grabbed me from the front. I had made the first mistake of a fight, taking my eyes off of the opponent. He swung me around and threw me towards a table. There was no way I could keep my balance now. I back peddled a few feet before I feel. The back of my head connected hard with the table nearby, directly on the lump I had gotten in the early morning.

Sickening pain absorbed me, starting in the back of my head. My vision became spotty, light and dark spots danced in front of my eyes. I felt a shoe connect with one of my ribs, over and over.

Voices were shouting all around me. Incoherent sounds, nothing was making sense right now. Finally everything went black.

My eyes flashed open and I was staring at a white ceiling. I tried to move but my right arm was being restrained by something. A tube was sticking out of my right hand. How the hell did I get here? I began to struggle.

"Calm down there son," a familiar voice called to me. I looked up to see my grandfather standing near me now, with a relieved look on his face.

"What happened? Where am I? What is going on?" I demanded.

"You're in the hospital," he informed me, "You have a pretty serious concussion, and couple of minor injuries from that little tussle you got into the other day."

"The other day?" I was confused now. I couldn't have been asleep for too long.

"Oh yeah," the old man began, "You've been out for about two days."

I could feel the blood rush from my face and I felt faint. I had been out for two days. Just gone.

"Are you ok?" he asked me concerned.

"Not really," I replied, memories of the past day coming in. What had I been doing?

"Well, luckily for you, there shouldn't be any problems with the school. I told them about your head injury the night before and the doctors were able to back it up," he told me, as if reading my mind, "however, a couple of things did come up."

This wasn't going to be good.

"The cops had to pull up your record, due to the incident," he continued, "there is a chance in a small town like this everything will be getting out soon."

I let out a deep sigh and stared once again at the ceiling. This was the worst thing that could have possibly happened. I was about to become a virtual leper in this town. Peachy.

"What happened after I was knocked out? Do you know?" I asked.

"From the police told me, a couple of the guys attempted to stomp on you while you were down. They managed to get a couple of hits on you before they were stopped, nothing too serious, just some cracked ribs. I believe David, as well as a couple of the Hawthorne boys stepped in and ended things right quick," he explained.

"Shouldn't I be in more pain?" I asked.

My grandfather pointed to IV in my arm then up to the bag it was connected to.

"Best morphine insurance can get," he said.

"Ah."

"By the way, a couple of your friends stopped by to see how you were doing. Doctors wouldn't let them in yet though. He should have let them, you were fine besides the fact you were sleeping. One of them was extremely pissed she couldn't see you," a smirk playing at his lips.

"Who?" I asked.

"That pretty black haired Hawthorne girl, she came with some of the others Hawthornes," he continued still smirking.

I was surprised by that. I hadn't really spoken too much to anybody besides Lilith, and that was minimal at best.

"Well kid, I think you need to get some more rest. The doctor wants to keep you until at least the weekend to make sure you didn't get any brain damage, but he thinks you should be fine. I'm definitely going to keep you out of the garage for a while though. Don't want you having any relapses," he told me.

"Fine," I replied.

I was tired again; maybe it was the overload of all of this information or the excellent morphine getting pumped directly into my blood stream. Whatever the reason, my heavy eyelids won, and I was out.


	5. Misunderstandings

I wasn't able to get much sleep that night

I spent the rest of the week in the hospital and was allowed to come home on Saturday night. I wasn't going to go back to school until at least Wednesday, by doctor's order. That essentially meant that I had nothing to do for about 3 days. I was never prone to reading, and nothing was on television. Well, nothing that a sane human being would watch.

On the upside I at least had a few visitors stop by. Some of my lunch group came by to see how I was doing on Sunday, mostly to make sure I was alive.

"Man, you should have seen the way you collapsed," Jake exclaimed, "it was nothing like in the movies. You kind of landed and didn't move for a long time. It was definitely freaky."

"You really do not know when to shut up, do you?" Lindsay chided.

I laughed at the little charade going on in front of me. I was in very little pain now that I was out of the hospital. I didn't have any pain until the doctor decided to cut me off of the morphine. Even then it wasn't anything some minor pain medicine could take care of.

"I'll keep you up to date in English," Annie offered.

"I'll do the same for Chemistry," Lindsay tacked on.

"Thanks guys," was my reply to the kind offer.

"This works nicely for me. Means I get to pick up an extra couple of shifts," David said, staring off into the distance, a grin playing at his lips. "Maybe you should get head injuries more often."

"Dude, if you want an extra shift or something a week, just ask and I'll give it to you. No need for a concussion for every occasion, you know?" I replied sarcastically.

"That works, but it won't be nearly as exciting."

The rest of the weekend passed with no real interest other than that. The one visitor I hard really hopped on coming never turned up, much to my regret. Seeing her would have made me feel better. I don't know how but it would. I also partially blame her for this whole debacle anyways, if it wasn't for me hallucinating and seeing her outside my window I would have never hit my head in the first place. The nerve of some people to show up in your fantasies and just leave you to deal with all the crap that came of it on your own.

The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday block were all just as boring as I thought they would be. Luckily for me though, Gramps, let me spend the day working the reception room of the auto shop so I could at least make some money since I couldn't go to school for most of the week. I pretty much found myself just sitting at the desk for 12 hours each day reading magazines, drawing, or other random monotonous things to kill time in between customers coming in.

Thursday morning came and surprisingly enough it was a nice clear day outside. This was cause for celebration on my part, considering I hadn't seen blue sky here in so long. It may have only been the third or fourth cloudless day I had seen in this town since I had gotten here. I dressed appropriately for the non drizzly weather and was ready to go to school.

I had been given the thumbs up on driving to school, so I wouldn't need a ride from any of my friends or Gramps old busted truck. Courtesy of some of my fellow classmates I was up to date on almost everything, so I wouldn't have to worry about any copious amounts of make up work ruining my weekend. Of all things, it was looking like everything was going to shape up very well, in my favor.

The day passed without any real happenings. I would have expected to see the group of jocks from last week at least buck at me or say something to me, but they kept to themselves oddly enough. I guess I wasn't the only one who had reached their quota for trouble this semester.

The only real downside to the day was that Lilith was no where to been seen. As a matter of fact the entire Hawthorne group had mysteriously managed to all miss school that day as well. I asked my group about it.

"They do that occasionally, they've done it ever since they turned up sophomore year," David explained.

"On days when it is nice outside they just find some reason for not showing up," Annie continuing David's thought, "It doesn't matter anyways though, they're grades are all so high, it doesn't matter. It's seriously like they could teach the classes kind of smart."

"I think they go out and do some of their weird rituals on these sunny days. Maybe some sort of ancient goddess worship or something," Jake interjected.

We all ignored him.

Regardless of the reason for their absence, I still at least wanted to see Lilith. Again, not healthy to think about a girl this much.

Friday turned out to be another nice day and the Hawthornes were once again absent. It was another boring day in the story of my life. Strange how the absence of one person can throw off a day entirely.

The weekend came, bring nothing special but work.

When Monday came, we once again hit the normal cloudy weather typical of western Oregon. A dull drizzle was falling as I pulled into the parking lot of the school. I saw the M6 sitting next to the Evo in the parking lot and I felt my heart jump into my throat.

The day was painstakingly slow, as if the clocks had been set to run in half the speed they were supposed to. Every class felt like an eternity. By the time the lunch bell finally rang I ran out of chemistry into the hall. I found Lilith walking past the door as I had just gotten out.

"Hey," I said to her, so very eloquently.

"Hello," she replied shortly. She hadn't even bothered to try and make eye contact.

"So where were you guys out last week?" I asked.

"Out of school," she said shortly once again.

"That's cool. What did you end up doing?"

"None of your business," she responded.

I stopped in the hall dumbfounded as she continued to walk on down the hall. Lilith didn't bother to look back at me since I hadn't continued following her.

I finally got the idea of how ridiculous I looked standing in the middle of the hall by myself and returned on my path to the cafeteria. I got my food and took up my residence at my usual table. I wasn't in a very good mood, thanks to Lilith on that account.

"What's wrong with you?" David asked me looking at my face.

"Girls, I just don't get them," was my response.

"Typical boys, you don't know anything," Lindsay said from across the table.

"Well I was more thinking one particular girl," I said looking over at the

Hawthorne table. I was surprised to see Lilith wasn't there.

"Hawthorne?" Lindsay asked.

"Who else?" I said.

"She seems a little stuck up," David said, "but then again if you are as attractive as her I think you can get away with it."

"Well I just don't get her. Apparently she was beating down the door to see me while I was in the hospital, then I try to talk to her today and she pretty much ignores me. What am I supposed to think about that," I ranted.

"That is a little weird," Lindsay contemplated, "maybe she just doesn't know what she wants. I say give her some room. Let things happen as they will, if at all."

Lindsay definitely seemed to emphasize that last part.

When art finally came, Lilith was no where to be seen. It's unfathomable that she would skip lunch and a class just to avoid all contact with me. That was too childish. My suspicions were verified when I went to the parking lot though, when the M6 was nowhere to be found and Lucien was getting into the Evo with Hiro and the others.

I didn't speak to Lilith for the next three weeks at all. That made sitting in Art a painfully awkward experience. She would sit there, looking like an angel, ignoring me as if I wasn't even there. She wouldn't even say anything to Michael in class, as if she was keeping her siren like voice away from me in every way.

After these three weeks of silence had occurred, the two of us finally managed a few words between us. They ended up far being what I would have wished she would say to me.

I elected to stay after one Thursday in Art, to work on a painting that I had started earlier. I was doing an oil rendition of the angel portrait "Lilith" of all things, from my mother's sketchbook. Though this painting was going to be of something my mother had originally done, this was going to be uniquely my own. My mother's style more soft and rounded than mine, a product of her flowing personality and gentleness. My style was slightly more angular, and more vivid, much more similar to my own personality I guess.

I heard the door open and I took a look back to see Lilith standing at the door looking at me. My presence seemed to surprise her. I decided to ignore her since that was what we were apparently doing for some reason. I took a little more of the paint on my brush, a well mixed rouge, for my angel's ribbon like lips. I was about put the brush on the canvas for this delicate procedure

"You really are good," a delicate, song like voice commented from behind me. Her cold breath had brushed the back of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. I spun to see Lilith standing right behind me admiring my partially completed painting. I hadn't even heard her take a step into the room, much less get right up behind me.

"I'm ok. It's not very original though," I said, trying not to look or think about the Goddess standing next to me.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It's based of a sketch my mom did a while back," I replied, still trying not to look at her.

"What are you calling it?" she questioned. That was the one thing I was hoping that she wasn't going to ask.

"Lilith," I muttered rather embarrassed.

Her topaz eyes went wide and finally caught mine. Damn they were gorgeous when paired with her perfect slim face and black hair.

"I'm just using the same name she gave the portrait," I tried to explain, "It's a coincidence, I swear."

Lilith looked away, but she didn't make eye contact again.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her putting down my palette down for the

time being.

"I came to talk to Mrs. Horn about my recent work. I can't seem to get it right and its bothering me," she told me.

"Can I take a look? I might be able to help," I offered.

"No thanks," she said quickly, looking away embarrassed once again.

"Suit yourself. As for Mrs. Horn though, she already left. She said something about picking up her kid from day care because he was sick or something," I told her.

"Great," she muttered.

I picked up my palette again and turned my back to her once again. I took the rouge on my brush and delicately took it across the angel's face, making the perfect curve of the lips, matching the pain on the holy creature's countenance. This was easily going to be the best piece I had done to date. I couldn't wait to finish this.

"How do you do that?" Lilith asked. I thought she would have left as soon as I told her Mrs. Horn wasn't here.

"You're still here?" I asked in return.

"Just wanted to see a master at work," she said.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," I told her. "I'm about to leave and lock up. Are you coming or should I lock you in here?"

"Rather not get locked in, I guess."

I took my brushes over the sink and washed them out and took care of my palette. Lilith waited until I was done with my clean up in the room then I locked the door behind me, stopped at my locker, and finally dropped the key off in the front office.

Outside, a brutally cold rain was falling. If it wasn't bad enough it was raining all the time, it had gotten dramatically colder now. This place couldn't suck more if it was really trying. I really didn't feel like stepping out into that.

"Man," I whined, standing in the small entrance way that lead from the school to the parking lot.

"Still not used to the rain I see," Lilith observed my apprehension of stepping out the doors.

"I like basking in the light myself," I replied.

"That's not an option for everybody," she muttered to herself.

I wondered what that was about. I could understand where she was coming from against. We both came from troubled backgrounds from what I've heard of the Hawthorne kids, so anything is likely. It would be better not to push that.

"What's with the sudden change of heart, talking to me and everything?" I asked her out of curiosity. During all this time I would have expected her to have run ahead, trying to get away from me.

"I'm a complicated person," she explained, but not really at the same time.

"I'm coming to appreciate that," I sighed in response to her cryptic explanation of her behavior.

"No where near enough apparently. Most guys learn by this point its better not to bother talking to me or even paying attention to me."

"Well I am a little hard headed I guess. I just find you interesting."

"Curiosity killed that cat," she warned me, in all seriousness.

"But that cat didn't have to spend the rest of its life wondering about the mystery it never solved either."

"I would have thought by now you would know better after everything that has happened. Nothing good will come if I hang around you. My avoiding you is more for your own health. I promise."

"Come on. What have you done that's caused me any trouble?"

"The oil thing. My humming distracted you."

"That was my fault, I wasn't paying attention. I should have known better."

"Then there was the time, during the fight when you got punched."

"Again I should have been paying attention to the task at hand. Besides you were trying to stop me right?"

"Sure," she mumbled, "then there was the time at the windo…"

Lilith stopped in mid-sentence. A cold chill ran up my spine and I could feel my gaze go from the rainy scene outside to her face. Her eyes were once again wide, with the shock of what she had just confessed to.

"You really were there," I began to say, but she rushed out of the door into the rain. I stood speechless at the speed of which she moved. It was faster than any sprinter I had ever seen in my lifetime. Lilith was in her car and out of the parking lot in a matter of seconds it seemed like.

Lilith. What exactly are you?


	6. Hiking

I wasn't able to get much sleep that night

Sleep was not something I had got that night. I spent all night, more than just a little freaked out at the fact that I had what was probably the hottest stalker of all time. I still couldn't come up with a way she could end up outside my window on the second floor. My room was facing the backyard and the top of the back deck was closed in, so a roof for her to climb was there, so it's not totally illogical. But seriously, who comes to stalk somebody at that early in the morning in the middle of a thunderstorm? Though I have to say, I was rather flattered that I seem to be worth the trouble.

Those thoughts kept me up near all night. The only thing that was keeping me going at this point was the hope of seeing Lilith again, and also the 3 cups of black coffee that I had chugged before going out the door for school.

To my disappointment, Lilith wasn't present at school again today.

"Did you hear me?" David asked.

"What," I responded disgruntled and unhappy she wasn't here.

"Hiking tomorrow. Since your grandfather is shutting down the shop to head Olympia, we should go since tomorrow is going to be a nice day. Not supposed to be a cloud in the sky," he described once again.

"Sure," I replied. This place was supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in America, and people came all over to see it. I might as well indulge myself. Maybe getting some fresh air, out in the middle of nowhere would help clear my mind. Well, further out into the middle of nowhere.

"Ok, everybody just meet at my house then, around 10. Sound good?"

So it was set, hiking in the nearby Park all day. So much for sleeping in.

When it was time for Spanish, I got a very nasty look from Lucien when he walked in the door. It was a look of intense and immortal loathing. I tried to ignore it, but his eyes were pitch black and scary beyond all rational thought. I thought his eyes were supposed to be a golden color, not the color of the worst nightmare creatures you could imagine. He kept doing that for a while until the red head, Roxy, smacked his arm when the teacher had her back turned. She threw me a sympathetic look and then the both of them didn't bother to look at me for the rest of the class.

The rest of my day was spent simply trying to survive the long, arduous day. Lilith simply not being there had bothered me more than ever. When the day finally reached Art class, I hoped that by some divine miracle to find Lilith present in the classroom, but she wasn't there as to be expected. Michael, however, was sitting in his usual spot, diagonal from me on the cold onyx table. I couldn't resist, I had to ask.

"Where is Lilith today?" I tried to ask as nonchalantly as humanly possible. I didn't pull it off nearly as cleanly as I thought I would.

Michael eyed me coolly, a slight enigmatic smile on his model face. I couldn't tell if it was amusement or chagrin at my awkward question.

"Lilith is having some peculiar lady issues today I believe," Michael responded.

"I see," I said, staring down at the desk. This just made things even more awkward. I couldn't believe that he told me his adopted sister was having "Lady Problems" today. Something tells me if Lilith knew he said that, she would knock his head off. She takes me as being tenacious enough to do it for some odd reason. Needless to say I felt too inept to hold conversation the rest of the class.

When what felt like one of the most arduous days of my life had finally come to termination, I spent the rest of my day at work with my grandfather, with nothing to particularly exciting happening.

Saturday came and I was already running late. My alarm had gone off but I mechanically hit the snooze and passed out again. When I finally got up I put on a some thermals a pair of jeans and a heavy flannel shirt, which would be enough to handle a chilly late October day. I didn't leave the house until 10:10.

I was the last one to get to David's house. Everyone was already up and too lively for this early on a Saturday morning.

"Late again," Lindsay chided me as I walked up to the group hanging out on David's Porch. Everybody, minus Jake was present; he had something to do today. He had said something about nature "hating" him. Some people were just made for the indoors I guess.

The group packed into David's Explorer, fitting quite comfortably. I was lucky enough to get shotgun, but it was hard to shut out the three girls chattering in the back. The ride took about an hour to get to the place they wanted to hike but it hardly felt like any time at all. David's Ipod had been sitting in the car so I routed it through the stereo and acted as the de facto DJ for the ride, which kept me occupied and happy.

When we arrived at our destination we paid for our all day parking and got ready to set off. David and I would have the honor of carrying lunch Maria had made in the two back packs that were sitting in the back of the car.

"You guys ready to go?" Lindsay asked excitedly.

"I was more before I found out this was going to be strapped to my back," I complained.

"It'll be worth it, I guarantee," Maria said sweetly. I was glad she was finally comfortable enough to talk around me. Maria was probably one of the nicest people I had ever met once you got to know her.

"Maria is an excellent chef," Annie vouched.

"You are aware if you let me carry this, there may not be anything left by lunch time right?" I said.

"Not unless you feel like me beating your face in," Maria answered sweetly. Something about the way she said it, seemed eerie, like hearing a child speak with an adult's voice. It didn't seem to match her at all.

The trail we were walking was a long, but easy one. Not too many steep hills or rugged terrain to cross. The path was we worn from all the foot traffic making the walk along it comfortable as well.

I never realized how much one misses out living in the desert when compared to an area like Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade Mountains. The temperate rainforest was beautiful. Tall, lush evergreens towered all around; ferns covered the areas off the trail. I could never imagine a world being so green or trees being so tall. According to Annie, some of these trees were probably saplings in the days Christ was preaching. That blew my mind all together.

After we had been walking for about two hours everyone was getting a bit hungry, so we stopped by an open, sunny clearing. In the pack that I had was a large spread so I threw that out for us all to sit on and enjoy our chilly picnic.

Maria had made a rather large lunch to accommodate all of us. Even with how hungry we all were, I doubt we would be even close to finishing all of it. As promised, everything tasted good, from the sandwiches to the chips and dip combination (that somehow managed to make the trip in one piece). A couple thermoses of coffee kept the meal warm and revitalizing. It was definitely worth carrying up the mountain.

"This is definitely my favorite park," David commented through a bit of sandwich.

"This one is pretty good, but there was this one I went to in California with the Giant Redwoods. Those were cool," Lindsay interjected.

They began to converse about the different parks they had been to as I got up and stretched in between courses. The air our in the woods was amazing. It was something I had never experienced before, earthy yet fresh.

Scanning the tree line I thought I saw something move amongst the ferns. I stood up and scrutinized the area, but nothing moved again.

"What's up?" David asked me.

"Nothing, I thought I saw something move," I replied. I didn't see anything move again. I sat back down a scooped some potato salad on a plate and went to town.

While I was in the middle of a mouthful of potato salad all the chattering voices stopped. I looked up to see Lindsay eyes wide, David the same. Annie was breathing hard and Maria had tears starting at the corners of her eyes. Then I heard a sound coming from behind me. Very heavy foot steps, even in the grassy knoll we were sitting in. I guess there really was something moving in the ferns I had seen earlier.

I slowly turned by head to look over my shoulder, not expecting anything good. It wasn't.

A large grizzly bear was lumbering its way towards us. His eyes were undoubtedly set on Maria's feast.

Without any word to one another we stood up slowly and cautiously, all of us facing the large beast now.

"On the count of three, start yelling, we should be able to scare it," David whispered.

Us, scare a grizzly? He must be insane.

"One, two, three," he breathed.

We immediately started a din in the direction of the bear. The bear snapped its eyes up from the food on the ground to our party. It had been walking on all fours, but our yelling seemed to have pissed it off. It stood on its rear legs, standing well over 10 feet tall. It responded by roaring back at us. We all shut our mouths immediately.

"Run," David shouted and they began to take off. I started to run in the opposite direction of the bear.

Our feet hit the soft soil, the sound of our footfalls dampened by the wet soil. Something was off though, the trampling of our feet wasn't right. We were missing a member of our group.

I looked back to see Annie still at the site of the picnic, the rest of us had already made it twenty yards. She was standing there hyperventilating. It looked like she was having an attack asthma attack. The bear was continuing its b line for the picnic. I had to do something.

Against all better rational judgment, I ran back in the direction of Annie and the bear, with all deliberate speed. I scooped up a rock on my route and made an arc so I was standing about 90 degrees to Annie's right. Neither the bear nor any of the people in my group seemed to notice what I was doing.

I took aim, wound up and chucked the rock with all my strength, straight for the bear's head. The rock connected directly with it eye, and it roared in pain and anger. It took its eyes of Annie, and glared at me. It went down on to all fours and began to charge at me. I had a barreling mass of fur weighing about as much as a small sedan heading towards me, with murder in its eyes.

On pure instinct I backpedaled a few feet before turning and sprinting as fast as my legs could take me. The thunderous sound of the grizzly charging seemed to dominate my sense of hearing. The sound in itself was terrifying.

I hit the tree line before I bothered to look back. It was close. Way to close for comfort. The worst thing was, it was gaining on me. How could something so big and awkward looking be so fast.

I made a sharp turn and headed in a new direction. The bear shot past me in the wrong direction for a few yards before it turned back to follow me, once again gaining momentum.

I was off the trail now. I was now cursing the ferns that I had once found to be beautiful. As of now they were going to kill me. It was hard to run through them, even though I had long legs. They were slowing me down, but not the angry grizzly looking smash my skull in to tiny bits.

I saw a clearing up ahead and redoubled my speed. The bear was hot on my heels as I tried to push my way through the knee high grass. Then the worst thing that could have happened did. I tripped.

I hit the ground while running full speed. My chest impacted against the ground, knocking the breath from my lungs. I flipped on to my back to take the pressure off of my chest and looked towards the clear sky that was so elusive to this part of the country. A shadow crossed my face, the grizzly standing full height above me, about to come crashing down on me.

The thought hit me. I was going to die. I shut my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

An explosion rocked the ground and my eyes snapped open. The bear was no longer standing above me. I stood up to look around, instead of running like I should. What I saw was beyond my thought process.

It was Lilith. It was Lilith glittering like crystal in the sunlight. If that wasn't enough, she had the bear pinned on its stomach beneath her and her delicate arms wrapped around the bear's neck. The grizzly was making pitiful sounds that didn't match its species very well; a crying whimper I'd expect from a small dog.

Lilith jerked her arms in harsh upwards motion. A sickening crack resonated and the bear quit moving.

Our eyes met for an instance. They were coal black, like Lucien's had been the other day.

"Leave. Now. Head that way, I'll meet you in a few minutes," she commanded.

I mechanically followed her advice. I could feel my limbs shaking. I had just seen a girl who was maybe 105 pounds; kill a grizzly bear, which was easily a half ton in a matter of seconds. To top everything off she was glittering like a damn chandelier.

I was shaking. There was no way this could be happening. It was as if I had glimpsed life as it should be seen through the silver screen, a plot that has no place among rational humanity, following the laws of nature and physics.

I was walking through the ferns, following what I assumed was the path that the bear had made while chasing me. I felt so numb, so confused and more than my fair share of a freaked out.

I don't know how long I had been walking when I looked over to my side to see Lilith standing next to me. I didn't even flinch. There really wasn't much I think she could do to scare me after seeing that. Her eyes were once again the golden color I was used to.

"Are you alright?" Lilith asked me quietly.

"Yes," I replied, trying to keep my voice under control.

We walked in silence for several minutes until we found the path.

"If you continue down this way, you should run into the rest of the group," Lilith informed me pointing down the trail we were following.

"What happened back there?" I asked.

"It would be better if you forget everything you saw. Forget me."

"That's impossible."

Lilith sighed and stared upwards. She stepped into a random shaft of light coming through the canopy and once again sparkled.

"I'll meet you tonight. Can you keep your cool until then?" she asked.

"Sure," I responded. "I'll see you then."

The conversation seemed to short and controlled for what I had just witnessed. Maybe it was the shock of what had happened. Maybe I was just insane.

Lilith stepped off of the path and disappeared into the forest in a matter of seconds. That was going to be something I was going to have to ask her about.

I followed the path and sure enough, I found my group of friends, standing with a couple of forest rangers it appeared. They saw me coming down the path and immediately rushed forwards. The girls all had tears in their eyes and David looked as if he hadn't had a second of rest. The rangers managed to push my group away and immediately began to question me. I couldn't help but notice the very large gun that was slung around his shoulders. There was only one thing in the forest that needed to a gun that big to take it down. Strike that, maybe two, I thought, thinking of Lilith sitting on that bear.

"What happened? How did you get away?" the middle aged, mustached ranger asked confusion and surprise in his voice.

"I ran and it eventually stopped chasing me," I lied. The ranger gaped at me, unbelieving and shocked. He found his voice after a few seconds of wondered silence.

"Well you're lucky. Most people who get attacked by a bear like that don't get away, even more so on foot. They can tear people apart if they feel like it," he lectured. He was acting like I tried to pick a fight with it. Wait, I more or less did.

"Yeah," I said quietly, sill thinking about the bear simply sitting, pinned under Lilith's slender body.

The rangers asked me several more questions and then lectured me about how what I did was stupid, then proceeded to call me heroic for saving Annie. I hadn't heard that many mixed messages since my first sexual education class. After filling out an incident report I was allowed to see my friends again.

Annie threw her arms around me, crying like no other. She kept apologizing for what happened, though it wasn't her fault. No matter what I said, it wouldn't calm her down so I went with it. It was most likely her way of dealing with the problem.

We eventually packed ourselves into the car once again to head home. I was glad I didn't have to go home in an ambulance in this case, I was sure the rangers were going to make me, even though I wasn't hurt. The girls passed out in the back seat, the excitement of the day had been enough to sap all of their energy, but sleep wasn't something I was able to do right now. I had somebody I needed to talk to at home.

David's Ipod was on shuffle, shifting through his seemingly endless collection when a particular song came on. Borderline Stalker by SignaltheEscape. As I heard the lyrics I couldn't help but laugh, all things considered. I had a girl stalking me like this, and even worse, I liked it. The stereo blared on and I heard the line _"Dumb kids, we cannot live without each other"_. A song about obsession, stalking, and pure un requited, unhealthy love; its like these guys based this song off of my life since I had gotten to Odell.

We pulled in to David's driveway and it was already dark outside. After we had all evacuated the car, more apologies and thankful phrases followed, which I took kindly, but told them I needed to get back to my house for some serious sleep. They eventually let me go and I jumped in my car and began my trek home.

The image from earlier played over and over again in the cinema of my mind. It just did not make sense anyway I tried to carve it. A petite girl killing a large bear as if it were nothing. Everything about her seemed too unnatural; her beauty, her eyes, her speed, her strength, her incredible stalking abilities.

"Maybe she isn't totally natural," I muttered to myself. The entire idea was absurd. Regardless if it was or not, I was addicted, helplessly, to her. There was no way I could escape her, even when she was trying to push me away. The flower does turn towards the sun I suppose.

There was no car at my house when I arrived. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, she probably ran from her house to here. No totally implausible, right?

I got out of the Chevelle and entered the house, flicking lights on as I went. I stepped into the kitchen and turned on the lights, to see Lilith sitting there staring at the wall. The look on her face was hard to read. I could tell she was nervous, but adamant.

"Hey," was all I could manage. She turned her gorgeous face towards me; her eyes had a golden sheen once again, when compared to the pitch black from earlier.

"Hey," she said back softly.

"We have some things to talk about I think," I tried to express calmly.

"Yes, we do."


End file.
